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Yacht Blueprint

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Brief: To find out the feasibility of yacht owners as a potential market base for DHL Import Express.

The Insight: Yacht owners are a picky lot when it comes to their yachts. And rightfully so. Luxury yachts are an expensive proposition. A yacht owner will procure only genuine parts for his prized possession as he just can’t take chances with anything else. Also, he will not trust a third party with this, as technical knowledge of yachts is still rare in the country. Now, importing individual parts regularly can get expensive. So, instead of incurring costs every time a part is needed, yacht owners buy spares in bulk and store them in warehouses for future use. While this may seem cheaper, they end up incurring warehousing costs in addition to the expense of spare parts on unknown future repairs.

The Idea: Acquire the trust of the yacht owner by surprising him with our knowledge of his yacht.

The Execution: A database of yacht owners which contained names as well as models of each owner’s yacht(s) was obtained. Yacht owners were then sent a docket shaped mailer with the name of their own yacht on the cover saying There’s someone who cares about as much as you do.” Inside was a detailed technical blueprint of his very own yacht with a personalised letter about how well DHL knew this particular model and how they could procure the right spares from anywhere in the world. This way, his yacht would stay perfect and he wouldn’t have to incur unnecessary expenses either.

Response: The mailing had an 80% response rate earning. That’s an ROI of 45% with a good 16 leads from the 20 mail outs. What’s more, this activity didn’t just bring in scope for future business; it opened up a whole new customer base for DHL’s Import Express service.